People of Red Hook

For this month I decided to pay a visit to Red Hook West and ask what improvements they wanted to see inside and outside their homes in 2026. Not many of my interviewees knew about PACT program, which is likely to convert their public housing complex into a weird hybrid Section 8 development partially run by private companies (see story on page 9).

Supposedly this is being publicized by the tenant association, and will be voted on this year, but not many I spoke to had heard about it.

Heidi Talavera: They need to do better repairs, because they just do things half-assed. I painted my own apartment. I put down my own tiles. We might wait for months, sometimes a year, for them to get around to making repairs. They do everything half-assed. That’s why I have to do things myself. And they need to update the appliances. I’ve had the same stove since I moved in, and I’ve been there 17 years. I bought my own fridge because their fridges are too small. I have five kids, so I need to buy for the month. I couldn’t fit a month’s worth of food in that fridge. And every couple of months, when we take a shower, the bathtub starts filling up. So I call them and they’ll take days before they come and fix it, but it’s just a temporary fix. Everything they do is just temporary.
Half-assed, like you said.

Yeah. They don’t find the source and actually repair it the proper way. And they don’t keep the hallways clean. If they do mop, a lot of times the mops will be dirty and the hallway stinks. They have the incinerators nailed shut, because they’re rat infested or whatever, so we have to drag our garbage out of the buildings and put it out here. (She points to the trash bags on the lawn next to the sidewalk.)

We had the same problem in our building. It’s so disgusting to see rats in your building.
I don’t have them in my apartment, I have a cat, but you see them around the building. There are a lot of them since they started all this construction and digging up the dirt and all of that. Some of them are huge. You have to walk with your flashlight on to make sure you don’t run into a rat.
They really need to be aggressive in controlling that.

Yeah, especially because there are children, you know? They carry disease. I have two girls that are asthmatic and one has severe allergy. She’s allergic to mice, rats, roaches., dust, just about everything. So I just think they need to put more work into getting the apartments up to code.
(I asked if she knew about the PACT program and she wasn’t aware of it. I gave her a copy of the Star-Revue with an article about it.)

Joseph Reed:They could do a better job keeping things clean. The trash leads to rodents, etcetera. There could be better lighting so you’re not walking through dark alleys. Everything is pretty good in my apartment. Just some minor things have to be done.
Are you aware of the conversation about converting the NYCHA houses to Section 8?
Oh, I don’t like that at all. I know people who already went through that transition and it has not been a good experience. You’re dealing with a whole different set of rules. You’re going from NYCHA public housing to Section 8 and it’s all different. Someone I know who’s been through the conversation, they’re trying to downsize her from a two bedroom to a one bedroom, and she’s been living there for over 20 years. She has a daughter that’s l7, and they’re trying to put them both in one room.
Really? That sounds strange to me, that they would require a mother to sleep in the same room with her daughter.
Because they’re both women, they think they should sleep in the same room. She won’t be able to have her own life and her daughter can’t have her own life. She can contest it, but it would be this whole process. If NYCHA sends you a letter like that you can walk right into the rental office and deal with them. But with the Section 8 you don’t even know who you’re dealing with.

The articles about the program make it sound so nice, like, everything will be renovated…
This is what they sell you on. Oh, you’re getting a new apartment, brand new everything…but it’s not brand-new high quality everything. And after you look over the visual makeover, you have the situation I just explained to you. You’re better off staying under the public housing umbrella.

But the residents don’t really have any say-so as to whether this happens or not. Am I right?T
Well, they have meetings, and the community is supposed to have input. They’re selling you on this program, but they’re not telling you that after we do all these upgrades, you might have to sacrifice this and that. They should have people at those meetings from developments that already went through the transition, so you can get better insights than if you’re just hearing from the organizers.

Risa Alford: I don’t have anything wrong with my home. So that’s good. And the grounds look a lot better since they’ve been making all these external renovations. By next summer the kids will be able to go down there and play. I’ve been living here for 52 years.

Are you aware of the discussions about converting tRed Hook West to Section 8? It would be a partnership between NYCHA and private companies. It’s supposed to produce more funding sources for improvements.
I read about it in the NYCHA journal. They’ve done some of the renovations, like in the Bronx. Some of the apartments looked really nice. I missed the last meeting about it. I work hard, and I’m tired when I get home from work.
It’s going to affect all the NYCHA developments in the city. They’ve already converted more than 80 of the developments to this public-private program.
I’ll go to the meeting in January.

George Campos: Today is actually my birthday. I just turned 48.
Well, happy birthday. Best of luck to you. Are there any improvements in the community that you would like to see in 2026?
We need more community rooms for the kids. And they shouldn’t have to have an ID to get in or anything like that. People see the kids running through the halls and they assume they’re just up to no good. I went through all of that. I was arrested for trespassing more times than I can count.

Maureen Beaton: My mother’s apartment needs to be fixed. In the living room the wall is peeling, in the bathroom the wall is peeling. The front door needs to be fixed. The police broke it down after an incident with my son and it’s going on four years now and they never fixed it. They gave her a bolt to lock it and they never came back to fix it.
It’s not like a normal door, with a key?
No. They gave her a bolt to lock it from the inside. I have to come and help her to get out. It’s never been fixed.
That’s kind of crazy, that she has to lock herself into her apartment.
Yes. I have to come all the time and help her with that. I have to help her with everything. One of my sisters helped but she died five months ago.
Oh, I’m sorry. So you take care of your mother by yourself?
I’ve got other sisters but they don’t come around too much.
Do you live close by?
I live on Park Place between Utica and Rochester.
That’s way across Brooklyn. You’re a good daughter.

Kamaya Cumberbatch: In the summertime there are a lot of people outside the buildings. I would like it if they moved around and not just stay in one place. Their music gets really loud, and it goes on until four in the morning. I’ve been talking to a lot of people and they have said that the noise disturbs them too. And they should do something about the elevators. Sometimes they can get nasty, like, from urine. I think in general there needs to be better maintenance done in the apartments, like fixing toilets, fixing sinks. I’ve heard that a lot of people’s showers are very damaged. A lot of people have mentioned peeling paint. They use cheap paint because they have so many apartments to work on.
Are you aware of the discussions about converting the NYCHA developments in New York City to Section 8 developments?
Really? I haven’t heard about that.
Well, there are hundreds and hundreds of people who live here, and important bureaucratic decisions are being made about the future of these residences, and obviously not enough people know about them.
I remember a meeting before Halloween where they were asking residents about their concerns. My mom and her neighbor were there. I don’t think anyone else showed up.

Sonia:
Tell me what improvements you would like to see in your apartment, or in the Red Hook Houses in general, in 2026.
We have a lot of apartments, and they are in bad shape. Broken pipes, peeling paint, no heat. There used to be a lot of workers, you would see a lot of people working. Not anymore.
What about in your apartment?
In my apartment right now, I have heat on the kitchen and bathroom. The pipes in those rooms are the only ones that are working.
You don’t have heat in the other rooms?
No. They came and looked at everything and nothing happened. I do what I can do to keep warm. I put sheets of Styrofoam in my windows. That helps a lot. I close the blinds and the curtains.
Oh, there comes your bus! Well thanks so much for talking to me.